


Red Equals Love

by LadyoftheDawn



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Fluff, Good Morgana (Merlin), Humor, M/M, Modern Era, POV Arthur, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:15:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25149058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheDawn/pseuds/LadyoftheDawn
Summary: Five times Arthur runs into Emrys unplanned and one time he does.
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 123





	1. Chapter 1

  
**ONE  
\- The Dog -**  


It started out with a sound.

Arthur was standing alone—in peace—at a bus stop, waiting for a ride home when a loud, ‘No, no, no! Shoo! Shoo! Ahhh!’ Pierced through his old noise-canceling headphone. 

He jerked his head up and saw a man—a full-grown man in a formal navy suit and a loosen red tie—sprinting his way at full speed, making a real-life music video of the song he was listening to which went; ‘Run boy run, this race is a prophecy—’. 

A tiny dog he recognized was a chihuahua followed the man not far behind. Barking all frenzy, eyes locking at a corn dog in the man’s hand. 

Arthur moved—a large step backward to get out of his way—but the man’s path was astatic and he kept staring back wearily at the harmless little pup. One second he was heading left, another he shifted right and that was when the man bumped right into him. The music suddenly cut short as the headphone was yanked away by the impact. They collapsed backward. Snowshoe landed on the hard pavement and the man on his torso, making it hurt worse than it should. 

“Jesus! / No!” They said almost at the same time.

The man hurried up on his feet, digging his sharp elbow on his ribs in the process. He ruffled his hair while watching the chihuahua stole his corn dog away.

Arthur—still on the floor, aching at certain places—cleared his throat. 

The man spun back, saw him then sputtered, “Oh- sorry! Sorry!” before offering him a hand.

Angry by it all, Snowshoe slapped that hand away and got up on his own.

The man rolled his eyes.

“Look, I said I’m sorry, alright? Can’t you see how blood thirsty that dog is?”

Snowshoe pointed dramatically at the dog now chewing the food under a tree nearby. The man gestured at it, insisting on how scary it was, so he blurted;

“It’s a chihuahua!”

“It’s a starving dog that won’t leave my corn dog alone!”

“Argh!” Arthur threw his hands up and walked away. He didn’t even look back.

+++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••+++

  


**TWO  
\- The Rain -**

And of course, a blazing rain had to start when he was at the bus stop on the day it was late.

It should have arrived ten minutes ago and if it did, he would be warm and cozy in his home before the damn storm blew in, not hugging himself in his dripping wet cloth, shivering and teeth-chattering in the endless rain. 

In the distance—not so far though the heavy rain made it hard to see—approached a man with an umbrella. 

“Oh, hello.” The stranger greeted.

He looked up and, yes, of all the people in the world, it had to be that man who was chase by a chihuahua two days ago. Arthur nodded in acknowledgement and hugged his coat tighter, so the wind wouldn't get in.

The man stood beside him and, to his bewilderment, reached a hand with an umbrella nearer to him, made himself half-wet on the attempt. Arthur cursed then shifted closer so they could both be under the umbrella. He pretended not to notice their shoulders brush.

“Are you stalking me?” He asked, but the man didn’t hear because of the loud pounding of the rain on the umbrella so he had to repeat louder. The man made an odd face then laughed.

“Why would I do that?” He replied. “Your life ’s not that interesting.” 

Feeling offended but thought it true enough, he huffed and replied, “Yeah.”

“My home’s two blocks away from here.” The man said then added, “I’m Emrys, by the way.”

Arthur nodded and let a silence filled in for awhile before he said, “Arthur.”

Emrys gave him a smile that cracked the corner of his eyes. They tried to shake their hands, but it was a weird position to do, so they ended up touching each others cold slippery finger briefly then pulled away.

“You can go.” Arthur said when the rain didn’t show a sign that it would stop any time soon. “I’ll be fine.”

“And leave you soaking wet here alone?”

“I’m already soaking wet.” He pulled his hand away to let Emrys see the state of him then had to quickly envelop himself again when another gust of wind blew pass.

“But not alone.” Emrys added with another smile.

Arthur snorted and shook his head, a corner of his mouth quirk and he hid it by turning away and using a thumb to scratch his nose.

Five minutes past, two yellow circular lights flashed through the blinding curtain of rain and getting bigger and bigger.

“There. Your royal carriage has arrived. Have a pleasant ride, my lord.” The man beside him said then bowed funnily.

Arthur smiled and responded, “Fuck off.” then stepped on the bus.

“I’ll take that as a thank you.” The man yelled just before the door close.

Arthur gave him a nodded then made his way toward an empty seat on the last row. The driver glance disapprovingly at a wet trail he created as he walked to the back of the bus.

+++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••+++

  


**THREE  
\- The Moon -**

The pub was a lonely place when there was no one to talk to, despite how crowded the place was.

His purpose was to find a nice company for a night. Just one amazing night of a good conversation that would—hopefully—lead to a great sex with no string attached and no one was going to cry over it in the following morning. But no one caught his eyes that night so it got boring pretty soon.

At the end, he walked out alone and felt lonelier than when he first entered the place. It was much quieter outside, he could still hear a distance song from the pub once in a while when someone opened the front door.

He strolled along the road, thinking where the hell he could find a taxi at this time of the night in this part of the town. He walked past the bus stop, on the opposite side of the street he was strolling on and spotted a familiar figure. 

It was Emrys. Or, at least, he thought it was him. He couldn’t see the man’s face properly because his eyes were hidden behind a big pair of binoculars, looking for something far above. He checked for the car before he crossed to the other side, even though the street was empty, it was just something out of a habit.

Emrys didn’t notice him, so he gave a cough and asked, “Spying on someone?”

The binoculars almost dropped to the ground when Emrys—literary—jumped by his sound. 

When Emrys recognized it was him, he replied, “No, you perv.” then he was back to his observation. “I’m watching the moon. Too much trees ‘round my place”

Ah, the moon. That made sense. He saw it on the news earlier that day. It was a super moon...or an eclipse, he wasn’t sure, didn’t paid attention to it that much. 

“Don't people use a telescope for it?” He asked, not really interest but just wanted to kill the silence.

“Well, not everybody can afford it, Richie Rich.”

Arthur snorted and fisted his shoulder for that. Emrys darted his eyes at him but then shook his head and gave him a close-lips smile then shifted his interest back to the moon again.

Arthur looked at the moon that appeared regular to him. Try squinting his eyes but still didn’t find it that fascinating so he turned to Emrys and said, “Let me see.” sped up the response by poking his finger at the man’s shoulder.

Emrys reluctantly gave it to him, said to ‘hold it carefully’ and ‘don’t drop it, okay?’

Arthur assured him that he wouldn't and looked at the moon through the lens. It was blurrier than the real thing. He frowned and commented, “This thing is broken.”

The binoculars were pulled back, Emrys look into it. “Adjust it first, dollophead.”

He crossed his arms. “Was that even a word?”

“Yup.” Emrys reply casually, adjusting the tool like he had done it a thousand times already.

“What does it mean then?” Arthur asked as the binoculars were handed back to him.

“Look in a mirror, you’ll find one.” 

Arthur gave him another shove for that. Emrys laughed it off.

It was hard to keep the thing still, a slight move and the moon was out of the lens, but when he got the grip of it, the moon was big and glorious before his eyes. 

In the lens, the moon was more detailed and its edge was sharper. He remembered seeing it this detailed in pictures across the internet, but looking at it with his own eyes was something else entirely. 

“Woah.” was all he could say.

“Cool, huh?”

He shrugged and handed the thing back, covering his excitement just to annoy Emrys. 

Receiving it back, Emrys asked, “What are you doing ‘round here anyway?” Arching a brow. “Stalking me?” 

Arthur snorted. “Like your life’s so interesting.”

Emrys chuckled. “It is.” and his eyes were behind the lens again.

Arthur put his hands on his hips, looking up at the normal, faraway moon. “Took my chance at the Rising Sun.”

Emrys lowered the binoculars and wipe the lens absentmindedly. “Oh, that pub downstreet? Good. Good. Never been there, though. A friend said it’s great. Nice music and all.” he trailed off a bit after that but then continued with, “Any luck?”

“Wouldn’t be here, would I?”

Emrys hummed in reply, hiding his eyes behind the lens.

“Let me see it one more time.”

“Buy one yourself.” 

“Come on.” 

They fought for the binoculars, their laugh echoing in the empty street. At some point, Arthur let himself too loose and he shoved Emrys head instead of his shoulder. He thought the man would be mad and punched him in return or something. They’d only met three times, including that night. They were not even friend yet, but he had crossed the line already. 

Emrys didn’t punch him as he fear, though. Instead, he got hype up by that and shove his head back. The turmoil in Arthur’s stomach disappeared and the fight was on again.

He didn’t remember who was the one that give in first. All he remembered was they got tired looking at the moon so they turned to do something else with the binoculars. Emrys made him stood quite a distance away from him then look at him through it. Arthur waved and made weird postures, pretending he was a movie star of some sort and Emrys laughed and laughed and pretended to be a paparazzi. 

An hour flew by, the temperature dropped lower and they decided to call it a night. Emrys showed him how to get a cab and said goodbye again. It wasn't until that night when he was on his bed that he realized he did find a good company, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

  
**FOUR  
\- The Orchid -**

Sitting alone with an orchid by his side was how Arthur found Emrys at the bus stop. Five more minutes the bus would arrived—according to the schedule—so he said hi to him then unceremoniously sat on a vacant seat.

He gestured at the flower then arched a brow.

“Oh, this, I…” Emrys turned half-way on his seat and point at it vaguely. “...funny story, actually, I bought a wrong plant. Sadly, my mom’s allergic to it, so I can’t take it home.”

Arthur nodded and stared at it, still wondering how someone could wrong it for another plant because so unique from other plants when Emrys add “Yeah.” then suddenly look like he wanted to stand up and walked away but didn’t. Instead, he clasped his hand together, placed it between his shaking legs and continued with. “Just asking, but if there any chance you could take care of it for me?”

He blinked, hand resting on his chest. “Me?”

For some reason, that answer made Emrys’s face lit up a little. He shifted on his seat and quickly reply, “Yeah, but I mean...you don’t have to…” He chewed his lip. “You know what? Forget it. This is silly. Why would you-”

“I can do that.”

“Yeah?” Emrys asked, turning all delight and happy and smiley in the sudden.

“Yes, but I doubt it’ll survive more than a week, honestly.” 

“It’s not that hard to care of. Here, give me your phone.”

Emrys opened the palm of his hand, waiting for what he asked for. Something about that gesture made Arthur dug the phone out hurriedly and handed it to him—silently hoped he wouldn’t turn on his heel and run away when he let go of the phone entirely.

Emrys didn’t run. He typed something far too short to be an instruction on how to take care of the orchid then handed it back.

“Give me a call, if you need help.” He said when Arthur stared at the new number on his contact.

Shoving the phone back into his pocket, he asked. “This is not some kind of a direct sell, isn’t it?”

His smile faded. “What? No!”

“Alright, just asking.” He shoved Emrys forehead. Had a feeling that it would make him smiled again and he was right. “But if you try to sell me more of this I’ll-”

“Won’t. Won’t. I won’t” Emrys made a ‘I’m innocent’ pose and beamed.

Before the bus arrived, Arthur had already know the basic need of the plant and where to keep it during days and nights.

+++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••+++

  


**FIVE  
\- The Halloween -**

He was so busied he’d completely lost track of how many days and months had come to past. When he looked up at the calendar, it was Halloween already.

Sitting at the same bus stop, exhausted from working late, again, on the halloween night, he looked around at children, dressing up as various kind of ghost and monster roaming the street. A man—wearing a purple jumpsuit to match with the child he came with—walked near him. He lowered himself on his knee to whisper something into the boy’s ears then pushed him toward a house nearby then came to sat beside him. 

“Hey.” A familiar voice of Emrys greeted him. 

“Emrys?” He almost got a whiplash for turning to look at him.

“Yeah.” His face was covered in black and red paint but it was Emrys, alright. He could recognise that smile anywhere.

He looked at the costume more closely and realized he dressed up as a dragon. A dragon with soft claws, short tail and a miserable-looking pair of wings. He tried—heaven knew he really tried—not laughing out loud, but he did, at the end. A blinking red light from his horn headband made him laugh harder. The expression on Emrys’ painted face was priceless. He slapped the man’s shoulder and kept his hand there, gripping it while laughing some more before looking up at him again. Some silly feeling inside him made him asked;

“What with the ears? Are you pushing them forward?” He reached up to touch it only to get his hand slapped away. “Dragons don’t have giant ears. You know that, right?” 

“I didn’t do anything with my ears.” Emrys replied grumpily.

Arthur laughed again, louder this time, feeling the lightness he hadn’t felt in months. Even when Emrys punched him in the arm and asked, “Are you done?” he was still reeling down from it. 

“Yeah.” He answered with one long exhaled, using his finger to wipe his tear away, then glanced at the child Emrys pushed away three minutes ago bouncing up and down when an old lady—probably the house owner—filled his trick-or-treat orange bucket. “That’s your kid?”

“Brother.” Emrys mumbled while adjusting his LED horn. 

“Don’t you think you’re a bit-” Arthur started, gesturing at the costume.

“Too old for this?” Emrys finished it for him, looked down at his purple claws, thought a bit then replied with a nod. “Yes.”

“It’s a nice costume, actually.”

“You almost shit yourself laughing at it ten seconds ago.”

“Still a good one.”

Another silent filled in between them. Arthur started looking around again, saying;

“The plant’s still alive, you know.”

“Yeah?”

“Maybe I have a hidden talent after all.” 

He turned to smile at Emrys, hoping he would get one in return and found he already did. Before they could say anything further, his brother came tug at his sleeve and his attention was turned away. They talked in a low voice, so Arthur turned his head away, giving them some privacy. 

Not long after that, someone gently pushed him on his shoulder. He turned and saw it was the kid, staring at him with his big blue eyes and said,

“Will you join us tonight?”

Arthur looked up at Emrys who was now staring away, rubbing his neck, acting like he had nothing to do with it. He shook his head. Did he want to join them? Hell yes. He hadn’t had this kind of fun since high school but he was in a suit. Although some consider a businessman as some kind of a monster, he didn’t think it would fit for the night. He shifted his gaze back at the boy. 

“Listen, I would like to. I really do, but I don’t have a costume.”

Emrys suddenly whipped his head back to look at him and said his shirt would do just fine if he loosened the tie and a some buttons. Also, he had face painting kit in his bag, and that was it, Arthur transformed to be a vampire at that bus stop. Fangs drawn under his lower lip—it’ll look like they grew down from your upper gum, if you keep your mouth shut, Emrys said—and a bat tattoo on the back of his right hand. The kid giggling and laughing as he helped Emrys painting scars on his face. The boy said he made a good vampire, so he bared his teeth at him and ruffled the his hair. The boy laughed harder.

They knocked on doors, earn candies and chocolate bars, raced to the next house—let the kid win every time—and only stopped when the boy started yawning and rubbing his eyes sleepily.

+++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••++•••+++

  


**SIX  
\- The Beginning -**

Since Halloween, he and Emrys had started exchanging text messages.

Once in a while, someone would made an attempt to play a joke and the other one would rolled his eyes at how lame it was. Other time, they would talk about the plant. The last useful tip he got was to use a spray bottle to maintain its humidity.

He had just found an old spray bottle under his sink when the doorbell rang. He rushed to answer. As expected, Morgana was the one at the back of the door. She wore a long-sleeve black t-shirt with her favorite pale jeans. Her hair was pulled into a bun at the back of her head. 

It wasn’t something they planned to do regularly at first. It just that when Arthur had just moved out to live on his own, Morgana and him made a deal she would pay a visit once a week, for a month, to make him felt less lonely. But, without anyone noticing, it turned into some kind of a habit. 

So that’s how it settled, Morgana would came knocked on his door every Saturday, had lunch together, caught up on their life, watched some shows on telly then she would leave in the evening.

She gave him a smile that most men found attractive though he thought it was more terrifying than anything. Her gaze shifted down to the spray bottle he completely forgot he was holding then gave him a curious look. He said, “Come on in, give me five minutes.” and didn’t clarify the purpose of the bottle in his hand. 

She followed him to the backyard. 

“Who are you going to give that to, dearest brother?” She shortened the distance between them and wiggled her eyebrows playfully. 

“What? No, someone gave it to me.” He replied, hand spraying the plant and wondered if it was too much already because it seemed more wet than humid.

Morgana nudged his shoulder. He swayed a little by that, sent her a death glare, and asked, “What?” 

“What stage are you two in, then? Should I prepare a dress?”

“He’s a friend.” He said, placing the bottle on a table nearby.

“Is that so?”

“Just, drop it, M’gana.”

“Poor him, has to deal with someone with a thick skull like you.” She said, looking at her painted black nails.

“What now?”

“The orchid, Arthur. Red orchid equals love and passion. Never heard of it?”

And that, he thought, was the point where his mind went absent. It kept going on like that when he drove them to the restaurant, when he ate, when Morgana talked to him in the restaurant and he made her repeated herself three times and still couldn’t focus on what she was saying. When they were home, she said she would leave early and, before closing the door, told him that he should ‘Sort it out, for god’s sake, Arthur.’

His thumb hovering on the call button for five minutes, biting his nail and staring at Emrys’ name on the screen. At the end he sent a text message instead.

|Arthur| : bus stop. ten mins.

|Emrys| : can’t. working.

|Emrys| : at six?

|Arthur| : at six.

At six, he sat—quite alone—at the bus stop. His hand clammy and the habit of biting his nail kicked back again. His legs constantly shook.

“Hey.” Emrys greeted, dropping his backpack on the seat on his right and sat next to him.

“Hey.” 

“So…?”

“Here.” Arthur cleared his throat and look down on the screen of his phone. “Listen to this.” then cleared his throat some more, trying to clear a lump in his throat away. Emrys looked at him oddly. He thanked himself that his hands wasn’t shaking then read a paragraph of an article out loud. “Red is the universal colour of passion and desire, and this is no different when it comes to orchid symbolism. Red orchid, a perfect gift for someone who makes you hot under the collar.” 

He turned the screen off and looked up at Emrys who was staring wide-eye at the pavement under his shoes and blushing to the tip of his ears. His legs squeezed together and he was kicking at the wind. His hand gripped tight on the edge of the seat. 

“Took you long enough.” Emrys said and looked him in the eyes, smiling to his ears. 

Arthur stood up abruptly and Emrys’ face turned pale for a moment.

“Come on.” Arthur said, offering a hand. 

Emrys’ eyes shifted at his hand. His smile and the blood on his cheek came back. He slapped it away, like Arthur did on their first encounter, but unlike the last time, Arthur fought for it until he got Emrys’ arm tugging under his. 

“Where are we going?” He asked, leaning his head on Arthur’s shoulder—making the walk awkward but, somehow, better.

“On a date.”

Emrys froze and stared at him. “Right now?” 

“Yes.” He replied firmly but his breath hitched from the fear that Emrys might said no and started pulling away. 

But Emrys just simply replied, “Okay.” then continue their walk.

Arthur exhaled in relieved and ruffled his hair, got a loud complain for that then grinned like an idiot all the way to the restaurant.

||E.N.D||

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! <3
> 
> Here's the site Arthur talked about in the story;  
> http://plainviewpure.com/the-amazing-true-history-of-orchids-and-what-their-colors-represent/


End file.
